Background: Goebbels began a weekly newspaper called Das Reich
in 1940. He generally wrote the lead article each week, in which he took
special pride. This essay is dated 5 October 1941. Goebbels explains why
Germans may not listen to foreign broadcasts. The Herr Bramsig and Frau
Knöterich he refers to several times are his examples of foolish
Germans taken in by British propaganda. For a discussion of what the BBC
was actually broadcasting to Germany, see Balfourís Propaganda in War. For a good discussion of Goebbels’
wartime essays, see Bramstedís book Goebbels and
National Socialist Propaganda.

The Matter of the Plague

by Joseph Goebbels

German news policy has not had an easy time of it in the past weeks.
Vast military operations were being planned about which the enemy had
no idea, and of which, of course, he could be given no inkling, so the OKW report [the
daily military communique] for a while had to depend on
stereotypic phrases such as military actions in the east were following
their expected course. Nothing more could be said without running the
risk of giving the Soviet military leadership valuable information, thereby
endangering the planned operations.

In the interests of the war, German news policy was forced
into silence, which naturally led to a certain nervousness on
the part of the German people. English and Bolshevist propaganda
thought that their hour had come. They could speak, we could
not. All the nonsense from London and Moscow over the past weeks
would take a long time to discuss. It is also unnecessary to
repeat any of it. It is already trash, tossed aside by the fiery
storm of earth-shaking military operations whose long-term effects
we still cannot entirely foresee. Silence was worth it.

In all their chattering and boasting, the Bolshevists and
the English entirely forgot to pay attention. They thought our
reluctance to answer their simple and ridiculous lies was the
result of weakness, so one day Budjenny and his five armies found
themselves in our trap. We won a battle that will go down in
history as a classic battle of annihilation. Now all the uproar
is on the other side.

We have often seen similar things during the war. They always
follow the same plan, and one would assume that our opponents
have learned something. There is no evidence that they have.
They run into the mousetrap as soon as they smell the cheese,
with the result that their premature shouts of victory lead to
a moral defeat as well. If only they could shut up and wait!
But no, they take their illusionary successes seriously and keep
talking big. If we had made even a small percentage of the mistakes
they have made, not even a dog would take a piece of food from
us. It began with Poland and continues in the Soviet Union. They
have always made false predictions. They still have the gall
to present themselves to the world as pure and incorruptible
fanatics for truth who present things as they are, while we, they
claim, abolish freedom of the press, send lie after lie into the
world, and lie so much that even we do not know the truth any
longer.

It is true that we have made some mistakes during the war. We do not
hesitate to admit it. By and large, however, we have told the truth. In
contrast to England, we have correctly estimated the military, economic,
and psychological strengths of the warring powers. We do not need to be
embarrassed when one reminds us of our speeches and articles from 1939
or 1940. Can Mr. Churchill say the same? He missed the bus just before
the Norwegian campaign. Then there was the unbreakable Maginot Line, the
Ruppel Pass that could be held forever, the island of Crete that England
would defend as dearly as its own life, or the Stalin Line, which was
to be defended to the last man, but then suddenly never even existed.
All swindles and lies!

One ought to be able to assume that English news policy has
lost all credibility with neutral nations. To the contrary! Swedish
and Swiss newspapers cite its lies every day with general satisfaction,
printing our facts only when they can no longer be denied. There
are even some unteachable people among us who cannot resist turning
secretly and quietly, behind closed doors, to Radio London in
order to enrich their political and military knowledge with English
swindles. Two recent death sentences and a series of prison terms
prove that. What are they doing wrong? Their behavior is not
only criminal, it is tremendously stupid. They can hardly seriously
maintain that the plutocrats in London are producing expensive
German-language programming to keep Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich
informed about the political and military situation. They openly
admit that they are doing it to throw our people into uncertainty
and sow dissension between the leadership and the nation. Their
news is directed entirely toward this goal, and serves only this
purpose. Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich volunteer, with
no compulsion, to hear such nonsense. Do they gain anything?
Hardly! First, they run the risk of ending up in jail as traitors,
and secondly, even if that does not happen, they wind up with
new worries and sleepless nights, since they have no way to separate
right from wrong and truth from falsehood.

The English, for example, estimated our casualties at three million during
the weeks we were silent. That naturally was utter nonsense. First, the
English are in no position to estimate our losses, and second they do
not care to, since they want to cause unrest in the German population
through their enormously exaggerated figures. We cannot reply to their
lies, since we want to provide only accurate figures, which simply are
not available at the moment. We therefore have to restrict ourselves to
saying that our losses are at the expected levels, which we can say in
good conscience given the facts available to us. The prison-deserving
listeners to Radio London run around for three or four weeks with a casualty
total of three million, whispering it to others, only to learn one day
that although our losses are certainly painful to those directly involved,
they are not even 10% of the English figures.

Aside from the criminal nature of such behavior, does it really pay to
listen to the English? We have to listen to them for professional reasons.
Cross our hearts, we would be delighted if we were free from this unpleasant
duty. It is so boring and stupid that it gradually revolts us. Remember,
too, that we know how things really stand, and thus can separate truth
from swindle, something Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich cannot do.
No one gives them speeches about the real state of things. If our radio
and press are silent, it usually means operations of truly gigantic scope
are being prepared. It is the duty of each German to wait with confidence
 a confidence, by the way, that is justified by countless historic
successes. When Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich secretly listen to
Radio London, they are being played for fools by our most bitter enemies.

That is not only criminal, it is absolutely unfair. The Führer
and his military and political staff are working day and night,
and not for themselves, but for the people that means everything
to them. Just before the great successes, they often hold their
breaths, wondering if everything will work, if things will really
turn out as planned, if perhaps somewhere unforeseen problems
will surface. Then they are delighted to once again announce
a great victory to the people, compensating it for the long
period of silence. Our soldiers march day and night through dust
and rain, destroying bunkers and fortifications, wading through
streams and swimming across raging rivers, having only one thought:
to close the pocket at the right time and to seal the enemy within
an unbreakable wall.

Meanwhile, Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich sit at the radio listening
to Mr. Churchill. That is thankless, contemptible, and vile. It lacks
even the most basic respect for the work and responsibility of the leadership.
I know that when Radio London hears this, they will jump to the defense
of Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich. They deserve nothing less. The
London Jews and plutocrats would like nothing better than such a conversation.
They are too dumb and foolish to be worth the trouble. And besides that,
we lack both the time and the inclination. We have better things to do.
We have no obligation to do them a favor. Our goal is to serve the German
people, to help them to win this war, since we know that it is our last,
but also our greatest chance. We know well enough the terrible consequences
British propaganda had for us in the World War. We do not want to risk that danger a second time. If we had had someone then able
to stand up to Londonís lies, this war probably would not have been necessary.
This time, we have learned our lesson thoroughly and forever more.

Take the following example. The German army does not attack
Kiev for weeks, both to save German lives and because the leadership
knows that the city will fall into our hands as the result of
the great battle of encirclement that finished last Sunday. One
naturally can say nothing about such a plan, since the enemy
will hear of it and take precautions. While we are making feverish
preparations, Britainís propaganda can spread all the lies it
wants without any fear of us contradicting them. They claim our
attack has stopped because the plague has broken out in Kiev.
Herr Bramsig and Frau Knöterich hear that over English radio
and pass the rumor on. A woman or mother whose husband or son
is near Kiev worries unnecessarily, and we cannot tell the truth,
since we must conceal it in the interests of our soldiers.

Does not such rumor mongering deserve not only prison, but
also the contempt of the entire people? We cannot excuse it on
grounds of stupidity. We are fighting for our lives. Let us be
not only as strong as lions, but as clever as serpents. We must
defeat the enemy both through strength and intelligence. If Frau
Bramsig and Frau Knöterich do not have enough brains in
their heads to see that during a war one may not listen to the
enemy, then they must receive exemplary punishment.